Tuesday 17 September 2013

Route changes to 16 and 10

On 22nd September route 16 will be re-routed in Marton and Grange Park. Northbound buses will now turn from Preston New Road into Preston Old Road, Lancaster Road and Lawson Road rejoining East Park Drive near the Model Village. From Fulwood Square buses will now run direct via Chepstow Road to Poulton Road without serving Dinmore Avenue. Southbound buses will do the reverse. This will allow additional running time to improve reliability.

Further to the recent post about Skew Bridge, from 6 October route 10 will revert to its former route via Lytham Road and Watson Road rather than via Waterloo Road and St. Annes Road.

Friday 6 September 2013

Buses back on Skew Bridge - News Round Up

From Sunday 6th October Skew Bridge on Lytham Road will reopen to buses. Blackpool Transport routes 5 and 11, plus Stagecoach 68 will revert to their established route on Lytham Road, removing the "temporary" diversion via Watson Road, Bond Street and Station Road which has been in place since February 2011. The bridge has had a 7.5t limit since 2006 with an exemption for buses, though this was withdrawn in 2011 due to concerns about the structure. Blackpool Council has now arranged a re-inspection using new technology to test the strength of rivets and this has enabled Network Rail to relax the limit.

Not previously reported was a change to service 5 from 1 September. This has involved the reversal of the terminal loop at Halfway House. Buses now run anti-clockwise from Highfield Road via St. Annes Road to Halfway House then via Squires Gate Lane, Lindale Gardens and Highfield Road. This is the direction adopted by the 12A from 1988 to 2001 (except for a brief period of two way operation along Lindale Gardens), with the 5 adopting the reverse route at its launch in 2001 to enable routes 5 and 7 to share common stops on St. Annes Road for passengers to Blackpool. The change 12 years later does allow an easier, all left turns route to be adopted.

The final Metro Coastlines route liveried bus - and the final passenger service bus in green - is 303, following recent repaints to 304, then 305 with 306 now under treatment. Nine buses retain Metro pool livery.

Excel 223 is the latest of the type to visit Bus and Coach World for DDA modifications.